


Sherlock Holmes/Avengers drabble

by Arenal



Category: Sherlock Holmes (Downey films), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-02
Updated: 2013-08-02
Packaged: 2017-12-22 05:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arenal/pseuds/Arenal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An extra Tony Stark has appeared on the SHIELD helicarrier...but it turns out he's not actually Tony. Shameless headcanon-y fluff ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sherlock Holmes/Avengers drabble

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any plot holes or out-of-character-ness. I didn't check this over too carefully. It's all just plain fluffy fun.

“Hey, Tony,” Natasha called, walking toward the lab. The brilliant inventor was standing in the hall next to lab doors talking to a tall man Natasha didn’t recognize. Both were wearing clothes that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 1800s. “Fury wants to know if you and Bruce have finished those tests yet.”  
Tony and the other man turned to look at her and their eyes popped out of their heads. Natasha wasn’t a self-conscious person—and she certainly was aware of how men looked at her—but the way Tony and the other man were looking now made it seem like neither had ever seen a woman before.  
“Uh—you see—” Tony mumbled. His hair was slightly longer and much messier than usual, his old-fashioned clothes were rumpled and dusty, and instead of his customary sculpted beard he had three-day-old stubble.  
“What happened to you? And dear lord, what are you wearing?”  
Tony seemed to have finally regained his composure. “I might ask you the same question.” Natasha couldn’t be sure on so few words, but he might have been putting on an English accent.  
She stared at him. “Uh, I’ve been wearing the SHIELD uniform for pretty much the entire day—and all the days before that that you’ve seen me, too. What’s wrong with you, Tony?”  
“Who is this Tony? And where on earth are we?”  
“Knock it off, Stark, or I swear to God I will punch you in the face.”  
Tony shrugged and shot her his usual roguish grin. “I’m rather used to that, actually.” Definitely an English accent. And not half bad, either.  
“Tony Stark, if you do not stop behaving like the idiot you are—”  
The man beside Tony shook his head in confusion and looked like he was about to speak, but Tony stopped him. “Why do you think I’m your Tony Stark?” Tony asked.   
Behind him, the lab doors opened.  
And then the impossible happened.   
“Hey Natasha, have you seen Bruce?” a voice said from behind Natasha. She turned to see—  
Tony Stark.  
She looked back at the first Tony again, and he was already striding forward, reaching out to shake the second Tony’s hand.   
“Tony Stark, I take it?” he asked. The second Tony, who was wearing his usual jeans, T-shirt, and beard, shook hands with his doppelgänger, looking as if he wasn’t sure what was going on, but he thought he liked it.   
“Where did you get this guy, Natasha?” he asked.   
Natasha didn’t bother to respond. She simply pulled her gun out. “Which of you is Tony Stark?”  
The first Tony stepped forward and raised one finger in a scholarly manner. “If you’ll remember, I never actually pretended to be Mr. Stark, and I am, in fact, just as surprised to be here as you are to see me.”  
“Alright, good.” Natasha aimed her gun at him, but then another man spoke.  
“Don’t.” Natasha turned to see the man who had been standing next to the first Tony. He was aiming an old-fashioned, but still undoubtedly deadly, revolver at her.   
“Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn’t recommend that,” the second Tony said, moving forward, and Natasha immediately trained her gun on him.  
“Don’t think I’ve finished with you. If you’ve been working on some kind of cloning experiment—”  
Tony raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Wasn’t me. All I was going to say was that—”  
“What kind of relationship do you have with your colleagues that they threaten to kill you?” the first Tony inquired.  
“You’ve never worked with Natasha,” the second Tony replied dryly. “This kind of thing happens on a regular basis. Anyway, being me, I’m fairly used to death threats by now.”  
“Right, and who are you, exactly?”  
“You tell first,” Natasha said, returning the gun to the first Tony.  
“Remember me?” the first Tony’s companion said.  
“Uh, bad idea,” the second Tony said. “You’re on our turf. There are agents all over the place.”  
“Hey, Tony!” Bruce suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway, and everyone turned at the sound of his voice. He stared. “Whoa. Did you work on some cloning project? Wait—which is Tony?”  
The second Tony waved. “Yeah, that would be me. This guy seems to have mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and looks almost exactly like me. Or something along those lines; it isn’t really clear yet.” The second Tony looked at the first Tony, ran his fingers through his hair, and grinned. “Apparently, being British suits me.”  
“But that’s impossible,” Bruce said. “There were no alarms. No security breach. Nothing’s wrong. Are you telling me a complete stranger who happens to look exactly like Tony just materialized?”  
“That’s certainly what it seemed like to us,” the first Tony said, looking at his companion, who nodded in agreement.  
“But that’s impossible,” Bruce repeated, and yet Natasha could swear he was grinning slightly—probably with the challenge of figuring it all out.   
“Highly improbable—not impossible,” the first Tony objected. “Whenever you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” His companion rolled his eyes and mouthed the words along with the first Tony, as if he’d heard them many times before.  
The second Tony frowned. “I could swear I’ve heard that before. Where have I heard that before?” he muttered, almost to himself.   
Natasha had a feeling she rarely felt—namely, that the situation was getting out of her control. She stepped forward aggressively so the barrel of her gun was almost touching the first Tony’s chest. He simply stood there with a slight sarcastic smile, as if he could read her mind.  
“I want to be very clear about something,” she started.   
“What was it?” the second Tony muttered.  
“You are in hostile territory,” Natasha continued. “This airship is staffed by agents and soldiers. If you try some daring escape, you will have a hundred bullets in you before you make it to the end of the corridor.”  
“I know I’ve heard it before!” the second Tony said.  
“Given all that, I’d recommend you state your name and purpose now,” Natasha finished.  
The second Tony snapped his fingers, looking triumphant. “Sherlock Holmes!”  
The first Tony, who’d been listening to Natasha with an increasingly bored expression, turned to the second Tony in surprise. “Yes, how did you know?”  
The second Tony frowned. “What do you mean? I just remembered where I’ve heard that phrase before—you know—the thing you just said about probability and possibility? It’s a quote from Sherlock Holmes. I read an article about him, and it mentioned some stuff he said.”  
The first Tony looked proud of himself—a look Natasha was all too accustomed to seeing on the other Tony. “Yes, it is a quote.”  
The second Tony looked somewhat confused, but simply nodded.  
“Tell. Me. Your. Name!” Natasha snarled.  
The first Tony looked at her with some surprise and irritation. “He just told you.”  
“What?”  
The man bowed slightly. “I’m Sherlock Holmes, and this—” he gestured to his companion, “—is Dr. John Watson.”  
Bruce laughed slightly in bemusement. “No, really.”  
The first Tony frowned. “Really.”  
“You expect us to believe that?” Natasha said.  
“Well—it’s true.”  
The second Tony strode over to Bruce. “Do we have anything on time travel yet?”  
Bruce shrugged. “Not that I know of. We weren’t working on it. Maybe it’s one of SHIELD’s other experiments that went awry.”  
“If SHIELD did it, I’m not surprised it went wrong,” Tony muttered.   
Natasha glared at him. “If you can clear this up for me, I’ll forgive that comment.”  
Tony shot her a sarcastic grin. “If you forgave that comment, I would wonder what was wrong with you.”  
“If you continue in this vein, I’ll knock you out,” Natasha retorted.  
Tony pretended to wince with fear. “Why must you always resort to violence?”  
“Says the arms dealer!”  
“Uh, excuse me. Former arms dealer. Current superhero. And, might I add, the one with the best powers.”  
“Aaand back to the possibly dangerous stowaways!” Natasha said, rolling her eyes.  
“Dangerous?” Tony looked at the men. “I don’t think they look dangerous. Unless you’re referring to the possible danger of the ship exploding from containing excessive amounts of handsome between the two of us.” He pointed to himself and the supposed Sherlock Holmes. “In which case I agree that it’s a serious issue that needs to be addressed immediately.”  
Holmes grinned and Natasha rolled her eyes. “Just tell me what this is about, Stark.”  
Tony turned to Holmes. “Now you need to worry. She only calls me ‘Stark’ when she’s annoyed—and that is truly cause for fear.”  
“Fine.” Natasha sighed. “Come on, Tony. Seriously.”  
“You want the truth?” Tony shook his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. This is not my doing.”  
“For once,” Bruce chuckled. Then, answering Natasha’s unspoken question: “No, I don’t know either. If it is time travel, I don’t know of anyone who has the technology yet. If it’s a hoax, it seems exceptionally elaborate and dangerous, and you’d have to be crazy to try it.”  
Watson shook his head. “Holmes is crazy in any case.”  
Bruce grinned. “What’s your opinion, Tony?”  
Tony frowned as if thinking deeply. “I think this is a mass hallucination caused by whatever Clint’s been smoking and therefore we should call him in here immediately and get him to give us some.”  
Natasha groaned and tipped her head back. “Tony. Can’t you take anything seriously?”  
Tony shrugged. “I just don’t think this is very serious. Think about it. If it’s a hoax—well, no point in it, really. And it can’t be a hoax anyway.”  
“Why not?”  
Tony shook his head. “You’re missing the most important fact. This man looks exactly like me. I don’t mean he’s similar. I mean he is me. It could be very clever plastic surgery, I suppose, but why? If someone were to go to such lengths, it would presumably be to become me, right? But this man is actually trying to do the exact opposite; he’s trying to prove that he’s someone impossible, or at least highly improbable. So if this is a hoax, it’s pointless and insane and therefore not worth caring about.”  
“I object,” Holmes interrupted. “It could be very well worth caring about. Watson and I could be a distraction designed to take your mind from more important matters. It could be the beginning of a very clever plot, the point of which you cannot yet see. Betting that you need not care about this is a bet on your life.”  
Tony grinned. “I’d be willing to take that bet.”  
“Spoken like a true gambler,” Natasha said.   
“I’ve been gambling all my life, on my life,” Tony replied. Suddenly, realizing what he’d said, he turned away from her. “Anyway, as I was saying, I doubt it’s a hoax. So that only leaves the option that—”  
“They’re telling the truth,” Bruce said slowly.   
“Exactly!” Tony raised one finger to jab the air. “Apparently, these people are Sherlock Holmes and John Watson—or they at the very least believe they are, which is more similar than you might think.”  
“Oh!” Holmes blinked. “Watson, do you think we only believe ourselves to be us? What if we are not, in fact, Holmes and Watson? What if—”  
Watson cut Holmes off. “Now is not the time to get philosophical, Holmes!”  
“Why does he look like you?” Natasha asked. “Are you a descendant of Sherlock Holmes?”  
“Not that I’m aware,” Tony replied.  
“In any case, the biology doesn’t work like that,” Bruce explained. “Even if he were descended from Sherlock Holmes, Holmes’ DNA would have been diluted with every passing generation. I mean, there’s a chance the DNA would’ve stayed close enough for them to look the same, but it’s so ridiculously small it isn’t even really an option. Nobody looks that similar to any one person unless they’re twins. And I have to say, I don’t really see the possibility of Tony being the twin brother of a man two centuries his senior.”  
“Unless—no.” Tony shook his head. “But it—that’s impossible. Except it isn’t! But—”  
“Oh for the love of all that is holy, just tell us what you’re thinking!” Natasha snapped.   
“He really is just like Holmes,” Watson said.  
“Look, I’m getting Fury,” Natasha told Tony.  
Tony groaned like a child denied a toy. “Nooo, Fury’s no fun.”  
“Too bad.” Natasha pressed a button on her gauntlet. “Director Fury? It’s Agent Romanoff. We have something of a strange situation outside the lab involving an extra Tony.”  
“Oh dear God,” Fury replied. The intercom crackled. “Barton? Rogers? Backup required outside the lab.”  
“Already there, sir,” Clint said, rounding the corner and coming into the hall. “Goddammit. Natasha’s right. There really are two of them.” He stared at Tony and Holmes. “Natasha, Bruce, you’re relatively sane. What’s going on?”  
“Time travel, apparently,” Tony said before either of the others could get a word in. “Unless you’ve been smoking something fun, in which case I want some.”  
“My God,” Steve said slowly as he and Fury came up behind Clint. “What is this?”  
“Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, at least according to them,” Natasha replied, in a voice that made it clear that it was not apparent to her.  
Holmes shot Fury a boyish grin across the barrel of the gun that Fury was pointing at him.  
“No, no, Natasha’s already tried that,” Tony said. “We’ve already established fairly well that they are who they say they are—”  
“Or at least we think we are,” Holmes supplied. Tony nodded to him at the point.  
“Yes, or that, and that means time travel is involved. We’d do better trying the nice way.”  
“That’s rich, coming from you,” Steve said.  
“Yes, Natasha’s already made that point.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Now, if nobody’s going to be original, I have to talk to Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson.”  
“Mr. Stark, you do not have the authority to make that decision,” Fury snapped. “These men are coming with me.”  
“I don’t see—”  
“You don’t understand, Stark. These men cannot be Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. I’ve met Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, and believe me, they look nothing like these men. They’re some sort of detectives, I take it.”  
“Impostors,” Holmes said immediately.  
“They had Scotland Yard officials, a man from the British government, and IDs backing them up,” Fury replied dryly. “On the whole, their story was much more plausible than yours. If I may say so, I’m not inclined to trust a man who appears on my airship without explanation, completely bypassing my security system, and seems confused and insane.”  
“You’re not inclined to trust anyone,” Stark interjected. “However, you just pointed out everything in their favor. The security system question? You’re missing the point. They didn’t sneak on. They just appeared, and they don’t know how they got here either.”  
“We only have their word for that!”  
“Yes, but it’s ridiculous to say they went to these lengths just to pretend to be Holmes and Watson out of their time!”  
“You’re missing the most important question too,” Bruce said, stepping forward. Everyone turned, surprised to hear the normally quiet Bruce sounding so authoritative. “Why does he look like Tony? They’re exactly the same height, build, face, manner of speech—barring the accent—everything’s the same.”  
“Plastic surgery,” Clint said. “We’ve had cases like this before.”  
“I’d wager it isn’t,” Bruce said. “I want to do a DNA analysis on both of them. You can get plastic surgery, but you can’t trick biology.”  
“Do you think they’re long-lost twins or something, and one of them is just insane?” Steve asked.  
“It would be tough to decide who the crazy one is,” Natasha said, and Clint grinned in agreement.  
“I don’t know yet,” Bruce said slowly. “These circumstances are too strange. First, the fact that they apparently just appeared on the ship, bypassing the alarms. Second, that they seem to be from a completely different era—19th century, at a guess. Third, that they claim to be Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, when Holmes and Watson are completely different people from this era. Fourth, that they’re as confused as we are, or are at least pretending to be. Fifth, that we can’t really think of an ulterior motive for such an outlandish hoax, if hoax it is. Sixth, that they don’t seem to be mad, and this is a form of insanity that I’ve never heard of, and it wouldn’t explain the security breach anyway. And finally, that Mr. Holmes is essentially Tony with a British accent. Altogether, the very least it warrants is a DNA test.”  
Fury nodded slowly. “Very well, Dr. Banner. But you will perform the test. Don’t let Stark touch it.”  
“What, don’t you trust me?” Tony said. “I’m hurt!”  
Fury shot him a look that nobody had any difficulty interpreting and Tony raised his hands as if surrendering.   
“Alright, I get it! C’mon, Bruce, you have a test to do.”  
“Yes, what is a DNA test?” Holmes and Steve asked in unison.  
Tony’s eyes flicked upward slightly in the tiniest eye roll, but Bruce answered patiently.  
“It’s a way to verify identity based on a person’s genetic code.”  
Steve blinked rapidly as if trying to process this, but Holmes simply nodded once. “Ah, I see. Carry on.”  
“Well, if you’ll come this way…” Bruce ushered Tony and Holmes into the room. Watson automatically stepped forward and Bruce looked up with slight surprise. “Uh, you can come too, I guess.”  
Fury tilted his head toward the door. “Agent Romanoff, go with them and watch.”  
“Why don’t you trust me, Fury?” Tony said, shaking his head. “It isn’t nice.”  
“Because you’re Tony Stark. Now get on with it. Agent Barton and Captain Rogers, you come with me to check the security one more time. Dr. Banner, let us know when you’re done with the test.”

Bruce, Tony, and Holmes were shut up in the lab for three days. Natasha and Watson gave up and left after the first day, complaining that the three scientists weren’t telling them anything, or speaking normal English, or even stopping to breathe, for that matter. In fact, Natasha and Watson had formed a quick friendship by passing the time comparing notes on Holmes and Tony—or, as they referred to the men, “your Tony” and “your Holmes” respectively.  
“So what were you doing when you ended up here?” Natasha asked Watson on the first day as they slumped against the wall, watching the three scientists babble about DNA and tests and the meaning of reality.  
Watson shook his head. “Actually, I’m not entirely sure.”  
“What, you don’t remember?”  
“No, I mean I’m not sure why I was doing what I was.”  
“What were you doing?”  
“Do you want the entire story?”  
“I don’t know; is it interesting?”  
Watson smiled somewhat sarcastically. “Holmes being Holmes, all stories involving him are interesting. I was walking toward our building—Holmes is my flat-mate—and I remember seeing a man running in the opposite direction, but I didn’t think anything of it. As I was walking up the steps, Holmes came barreling out and yelled at me to chase the man. So I did; Holmes was right behind me, but we lost him. I asked him who the man was; he wouldn’t tell me; we argued. The man reappeared with a gun, and well, Holmes being Holmes, had forgotten to load his gun. So we ran again. And Holmes being Holmes, we ran right past Scotland Yard. He’d told Detective Inspector Lestrade to be on the lookout for that man. We were just slowing down when I heard Lestrade arrest the man, and at the same moment—well—it’s hard to describe. Then we appeared here.”  
“Wait—you don’t know why you were chasing the man?”  
“Holmes is Holmes. It happens more frequently than one might think.” Watson rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t like to divulge, well, anything. It can be irritating, when one is attempting to solve cases with him.”  
Natasha sighed. “Join the club.”  
“I’m sorry?”  
“It’s an expression. It means same thing happens here. With Tony, that is. It’s even worse when we’re at Stark Tower, though.”  
“Stark Tower?”  
“Tony’s home. It got partially destroyed in our most recent battle, and when Tony rebuilt it, he added extra floors, one for each of us. And when we’re there, Tony locks himself in his lab for days on end and we hear explosions at all hours.”  
“So…what is this group?”  
“We’re the Avengers. Director Nick Fury started it. It’s Tony Stark, Captain Steve Rogers, Agent Clint Barton, Dr. Bruce Banner, and me. Oh, and Thor Odinson, but he’s never here. He has his own world to keep track of.” Natasha, seeing the look on Watson’s face, smiled. “He’s from another planet. It’s complicated.”  
Watson chuckled. “Not nearly as complicated as this. But if you have friends from another planet, why is time travel so implausible?”  
Natasha smiled. “Yeah, I guess it isn’t. So tell me; your Tony—that is, Holmes—doesn’t like telling you about the cases?”  
“It’s maddening,” Watson replied. “He can also be rude, antisocial, condescending, offensive, and absentminded.”  
“Why do you put up with him, then?” Natasha tilted her head and smiled slightly, as if she already knew the answer.  
Watson grinned ruefully. “He wouldn’t last long without me. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if that man has a death wish or is just oblivious. I’m the one who keeps him from jumping out of high windows in pursuit of criminals and drinking formaldehyde—or rather, I try to. It doesn’t always work.”  
“Formaldehyde?” Natasha pulled a face.  
“He is not the most conventional person. But what can I say? He’s my best friend.”  
Natasha smiled again. “I see. So you’re sort of like Holmes’ Pepper.”  
“Pepper?”  
“Pepper Potts is Tony’s fiancée. She’s wonderful. It’s nice to have another woman around when all the men are off being idiots. And honestly, she’s the reason Tony’s successful. He may be a genius, but he also can’t make his own toast without her showing him how. Actually, I’m exaggerating. It’s more like he wouldn’t remember to eat or sleep if she didn’t remind him that he’s still a human being.”  
Watson laughed at the description. “Then yes, maybe I am Holmes’ Pepper.” Natasha raised her eyebrows and Watson’s expression immediately turned to one of panic. “But I’m not his fiancée!”  
Natasha grinned. “Nobody said you were.”

Bruce called Fury at the end of three days.  
“Director Fury? It’s Banner. These results are unbelievable. You’d better come in.”   
Fury arrived with Clint, Steve, Natasha, and Watson two minutes later. “What is it, Dr. Banner?”  
Bruce faced the assembled group almost warily. Holmes and Tony stood slightly behind him and shot each other a quick, apprehensive glance. Someone, probably Tony, had lent Holmes modern clothes, and, were it not for Tony’s beard and shorter hair, he and Holmes would have been indistinguishable.   
“Now, I’d thought the results were going to be interesting,” Bruce started, looking down and twisting his hands. “I still couldn’t believe the results. I redid the tests and checked my work, then I had Tony and Holmes check my work—”  
Fury interrupted. “They were not supposed to mess with anything!”  
“They had to!” Bruce snapped. “Like it or not, Fury, they’re scientists, and eventually, you are going to have to trust Tony! Who else was I supposed to consult?”  
“One of SHIELD’s scientists, perhaps?”  
“You have nobody better than Tony,” Bruce said. His voice was slightly strained. “If you aren’t going to trust us, don’t bring us here.”  
“Director,” Clint interrupted, looking slightly worried. “Let’s just get on with it. If they all got the same results…”  
Fury looked at Bruce’s face and subsided. Tony, with a proud grin on his face, clapped Bruce on the shoulder, and Bruce turned around and returned the grin.  
“I don’t understand,” Steve said.  
“Oh, there’s a surprise,” Tony muttered.  
Steve glared at him. “No, hold on. Three days ago, this man didn’t know what DNA was. Now he’s checking Bruce’s work?”  
Tony shrugged. “He’s a quick learner.” He and Holmes grinned at each other. “Or, you know—I’m a quick learner.”  
“Anyway, what are you saying?” Natasha asked. “What are the results?”  
Bruce took a deep breath. “Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark have exactly the same DNA.”  
There was a quick intake of breath around the room, but Steve spoke first.  
“So? They’re relatives or something.”  
Tony rolled his eyes, but before he could make a cutting remark, Bruce replied.  
“No, that isn’t how it works. Everyone has their own personal DNA. It is your unique genetic code. Think of it as a personalized ID. Except that you can steal an ID, but you can’t steal DNA. DNA doesn’t lie, and there should be nobody who has exactly the same DNA as you, except, well, you.”  
“What are you saying?”  
Bruce shook his head and smiled slightly. “I’m saying they’re the same person. They aren’t similar; they aren’t twins. Tony and Holmes are literally the same person.”  
Everyone looked from Holmes to Tony and back again. Holmes and Tony grinned in unison.   
“Told you it would be weird,” Tony said. “And, what’s more, you know how no two people have the same fingerprints, not even identical twins?”  
“Let me guess—you and Holmes have the same prints,” Natasha said.  
“Bingo. Now, someone want to tell me how that’s possible?” Tony began to stride up and down the length of the room. “I’ll tell you, it isn’t something we thought was possible. But we looked into it, and, assuming none of us are hallucinating and all of this is real, there was only one possible conclusion.”  
“But you clearly aren’t the same person,” Steve said. “One of you is English, the other’s American. One of you is a—a detective, right? The other is an inventor.”  
“Excuse me. Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist,” Tony interjected quickly, stopping his pacing.  
Steve rolled his eyes. “Yes, that. My point is you’re different. It’s that simple. You aren’t the same person.”  
“Ah! But you are forgetting the product of circumstance,” Holmes said, raising his finger in exactly the same way Tony sometimes did and beginning to pace. The resemblance was really eerie. “I grew up in the nineteenth century in England, as aforementioned. Think of it—both of us are scientists, geniuses. I became a consulting detective, the only one in the world. But transfer my genetic code, my mind, me, to America in the twenty-first century, and the British detective becomes an American inventor.” Holmes spread his arms and cocked his head as if to say, Isn’t this easy?   
“Oh good lord, there’s two of them,” Natasha said.  
“Well, I like it,” Tony said, holding out his fist, and Holmes tapped it with his own.   
Fury rubbed his temples. “You taught a nineteenth-century detective to fist-bump.”  
“Uh…yeah. Problem?” Tony said.  
Fury looked like he was trying hard to make sense of everything. “I think I have a headache coming on. So Dr. Banner, you’re saying they’re exactly the same person?”  
“Uh…yeah.”  
“How is that possible?”  
“Cloning?” Clint suggested.  
Holmes shook his head. “Unlikely.”  
“Hey, how do you know about that?” Steve asked.  
Holmes looked surprised at the question. “Banner and Stark explained it to me. We discussed it and cloning is unlikely. It seems utterly pointless, and one still must contend with my memories. Admittedly, they might be false, but all of this requires convoluted logic to reach an endpoint. We don’t want to twist—”  
“—the facts to suit the theories, rather than the theories to suit the facts,” Tony finished, grinning. “See, I do remember that article.”  
“So what’s the verdict?” Natasha asked. She was much too disciplined to bounce up and down with impatience, but that’s what she wanted to do. “How did this happen?”  
Bruce, Tony, and Holmes shared a cryptic glance, and finally Bruce replied.  
“Holmes comes from another reality.”  
Fury laughed with surprise. “You’re kidding.”  
“No, hear me out! That’s the simplest explanation that covers all the points. It isn’t as if it’s been disproven that this is possible. It simply hasn’t been explored yet. It remains to be discovered how Holmes and Watson got here, but otherwise, the theory works.”  
“No way,” Natasha said flatly. “Another reality?”  
“Loki—and Thor, for that matter—came from the other side of the universe. Actually, they might have come from another universe. We don’t really know because we haven’t fully explored their circumstances yet. Is it really so implausible, given that, that Holmes and Watson slipped through a gap in reality on the same planet?”  
“Actually, yes. This is ridiculous,” Fury said. “The results must be wrong. Dr. Banner might have made a mistake—”  
Tony threw his hands in the air. “What do I have to do to convince you? You have nobody better than Bruce. He didn’t get it wrong. And we redid the tests, we checked the work, and everything came out the same way. Other universes are totally possible. Check quantum mechanics. The probability is slim—so unbelievably slim—but it’s there.”  
“This is some trick you’re playing on us, Stark.”  
“Hook me up to a lie detector, if you like! I’m telling the truth; why is it so goddamn hard for you to accept? The three smartest people on this airship figured out what happened. You got another idea, by all means, share it, but I guarantee it won’t match up.”   
Fury sighed and turned to Natasha. “What do you think, Agent Romanoff?”  
Natasha’s eyes pierced Tony’s and he met her gaze steadily. She nodded slowly.   
“I believe him, Director. Whether or not they got it right, he thinks he’s telling the truth. And you know what? I think they did get it right. I trust their work. They are the smartest; can’t argue with that.”  
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Fury grumbled. “What about you, Agent Barton?”  
Clint shrugged. “I’ve never disbelieved Tony on this. Granted, I’m no scientist, but I see no reason for alternate realities not to exist.”  
“Too many negatives.”  
Clint grinned. “Basically, I’m with Natasha. They’re telling the truth.”  
Fury looked at Steve. “Captain?”  
Steve raised his hands and turned away. “I know nothing about this. Leave me out of it.”  
“Good man,” Tony said. “It that enough for you yet, Director?”  
Fury sighed. “Just find out how they got through. No offense meant to Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, but I don’t want this happening again.”  
“Well, can you tell us how you found yourselves here?” Bruce inquired.  
Holmes and Watson looked at each other. Holmes looked sheepish and guilty, but Watson looked exasperated. “Yes, Holmes, why don’t you tell them what we were doing? Because I’m not really sure myself.”  
“What, don’t you know?” Clint said.  
“I am not fond of discussing my mental processes, even with Watson,” Holmes said, trying to sound dignified.  
“Translation: He doesn’t always know what he’s doing, and when he does, he still won’t tell me because he’s a child,” Watson replied.  
Holmes made a face that would, indeed, suit a nine-year-old boy. “Well, I can explain now. We were simply chasing a criminal—”  
“Running away from one, actually, because you forgot to load your gun,” Watson interjected.  
“We were tricking him into turning himself in! It worked, didn’t it? In any case, as we passed Scotland Yard—well, I can’t speak for Watson—I heard a whooshing sort of sound that got louder and louder until it blocked out the surrounding London traffic. Then everything around me began to shimmer, almost as if in a heat wave, except the weather was cool and crisp. And then there was a pop, and Watson and I fell into the hallway right outside this lab.”  
Fury turned to Tony and Bruce. “How do we put them back?”  
Tony grinned. “That will require tinkering, and also technology that is not available on this airship.”  
“Probably because it’s illegal on this airship,” Natasha muttered.  
Tony’s grin widened. “We’ll need to go back to Stark Tower.”  
Fury sighed. “This was supposed to be a simple meeting.”  
“We met! We should’ve been back at Stark Tower by this time anyway.”  
“All right. Are all of you going?”  
Clint and Natasha looked at each other.  
“Well…I’m kind of interested to see how this turns out,” Clint said.  
“Come on. You would go mad if you didn’t see how it turned out,” Natasha replied. “You know, Clint, for an agent who’s faced down a god, you’re terrible at acting nonchalant. Work on your poker face.”  
Tony clapped them both on the shoulder. “Well, Clint’s going, and that means Natasha’s going.”  
Natasha rolled her eyes. “Someone has to keep you boys out of trouble. I think two Tonys might be too much for even Pepper to handle.”  
“Nah, there’s nothing Pepper can’t handle,” Tony said. “But whatever. What about you, Capsicle?”  
“It depends. What’s the other Tony going to call me?”  
Holmes looked at Tony. “What does he want or not want me to call him?”  
“He means you shouldn’t call him Cap, Capsicle, Captain Freeze, Ice Boy, Captain Freezer Burn, or any variation thereof.”   
“Which means, of course, that is what you want me to call him.”  
Tony shrugged. “It would be nice.”  
Holmes looked at Steve and cocked his head. “What about The Mighty Ice Cube?”  
Tony nodded thoughtfully. “I like that. Never used that one before.”  
Steve chuckled. “Now I believe he’s you.”  
Natasha frowned. “Why on earth would you let him know that you didn’t want to be called a specific thing, knowing that our Tony would then convince him to call you said thing?”  
Steve grinned. “It was too weird before, knowing he was biologically Tony but also having him be not Tony. Now he seems like the Tony I know.”  
Natasha shook her head. “I’m not going to pretend to get it.”  
“We all set? Yes? Good. To Stark Tower!” Tony cried, pointing in an attempt to look like a comic book hero.  
“Stark Tower—which, I might remind you, is your house—is that way,” Clint said, pushing Tony’s arm into the correct position.  
“Yes. As I said. To Stark Tower!”


End file.
